Kinshasa, April 22rd, 2025 (CPA) – The Holy See has announced on Tuesday that the funerals of Pope Francis will take place on Saturday April 26th and the mass will be celebrated on the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica at 10am, on the first day of the novemdiales, has reported the international media. ‘The liturgy will be presided over by Cardinal Giovani Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals.
At the end of the Mass, the Ultima commendatio and the Valedictio will take place. The Sovereign Pontiff’s coffin will then be taken to St Peter’s Basilica and then to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for it will be buried’, according to the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis. Before that, the remains of the Bishop of Rome will be laid open to the faithful in St Peter’s Basilica.
The coffin will be carried in a procession from Saint Martha’s House to the Basilica, passing through Saint Martha’s Square, the Square of the Roman Protomartyrs and the Arco delle Campane before entering the Vatican Basilica. At the altar of confession, the Cardinal Camerglingue will preside over the Liturgy of the Word, after which the veneration of the remains will begin. Several heads of state and government have announced their participation.
Hundreds of thousands of faithful but also foreign leaders such as US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are expected to attend.